Chansky's Notebook: Dumb Basketball in Boston

Even Ol’ Roy could hardly bear to watch.

Carolina’s basketball season has been getting wacky lately, but Tuesday night at Boston College takes the cake. It got so frustrating that Roy Williams gave himself the tired signal and watched the rest of the game from the locker room. Williams has had a type of vertigo for the last 18 years, but he can usually recover from his sudden dizzy spells. This time his TEAM was too unbalanced for him to go on.

There is no other word to describe it, but the Tar Heels played dumb basketball in Boston. Williams shook up his starting frontcourt after losses at Louisville and Notre Dame, and thankfully one of the benched starters did not sulk his way through the game. Justin Jackson, who has been in a daze himself the last month, scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half as the Heels somehow rallied for their coach and gave Williams his 12th 20-win season at UNC.

“I’m alive, still kicking,” Williams said after the improbable comeback, coached by assistants Steve Robinson, C.B. McGrath, Hubert Davis and Brad Frederick. It took them all to get the team to play just a little bit smarter. But here are a few tips for the Tar Heels if they want to keep their coach from passing out again.

Theo Pinson, one of the surprise starters, can drive, dish and defend but NEVER shoot at three-pointer near the end of the shot clock. He was 0-3 outside the arc at BC, 2-2 inside. Brice Johnson should NEVER take a head fake from a slow white center, who left Johnson behind with a high school head bob on the baseline – TWICE. Johnson and Isaiah Hicks each committed two careless fouls in the last five minutes. The Heels missed only three free throws in the game, but all three by two of their best foul shooters in the frustrating final minutes.

Thank goodness for JJ, who came off the bench with a purpose and got stronger as the game went on and the Tar Heels needed him more. He was the most aggressive offensively we’ve seen him in his two seasons, taking the ball to the basket, making 9 of his 11 shots and even draining two three-pointers. The too-unassertive Marcus Paige made a big three-ball from the corner, but it was Jackson who saved Carolina from suffering the biggest upset of the college basketball season to the ACC winless Eagles.

After three road games in eight days, the Tar Heels go home for three tough tests in six days. Hopefully, they won’t make their coach, and us, sick any more.

Chansky’s Notebook: Dumb Basketball in Boston

On Air Now: 97.9 FM